I saw that Mike made a few nominations for the 2009 TRAFFIC Awards, which will be given out at the New York TRAFFIC conference, and I want to share a few of my nominees. This year has proven to be the most difficult one I have faced in the domain industry, and there are several individuals who stand out in my opinion and deserve recognition and praise.

BEST DEVELOPER OF THE YEAR:

Shaun Pilfold – Kelowna.com: Shaun has spent much of this year building a business on the geodomain, Kelowna.com. Instead of a standard geodomain name (like mine) with tourism information, event updates and a bit of news, Shaun has taken Kelowna.com to the next level. Shaun’s company has sunk significant resources into the business, hiring journalists, editors, and sales staff, while marketing the heck out of the business. During the Kelowna forest fires, Kelowna.com provided the best local coverage and won a lot of praise from the local people. Shaun’s company owns a plethora of great domain names, including Jobs.ca and more.

Richard Douglas – Oakville.com: Richard is one of the smartest people I know, and he has privately provided a tremendous amount of advice to me about development, SEO, marketing, hosting and more. Richard’s Oakville.com, which launched in the past year, was built on a great platform that will allow the company to scale. From geocoded directory listings to a great news distribution service, Oakville.com is quickly becoming recognized in the community. Oakville.com was also a partner of the RBC Canadian Open, a PGA event held in Oakville, and the site received recognition from the Oakville city government and local business leaders. Richard also runs the domain blog, TooManySecrets.com, which has great development insights.

DOMAIN HALL OF FAME

Mike Berkens: There is no doubt in my mind that Mike Berkens deserves to be in the Domainer Hall of Fame. Without question, Most Wanted Domains, the company Mike founded, has one of the top generic domain portfolios in the world. In addition to this, Mike’s blog, TheDomains.com, is one of the best sources of information about the domain industry, and Mike breaks down how outside factors will impact our domain investments and developed websites. Mike attends most of the domain conferences, and he is very approachable, always willing to give advice and offer honest feedback.

THE “WE GET IT” AWARD

Candy.com: This one was pretty easy. A small candy company bought Candy.com for $3,000,000 and have greatly increased their brand recognition and traffic. They went from being somewhat unknown to owning one of the best generic domain names that money could buy – and arguably the best in their industry. At every tradeshow, the Candy.com team will be instantly recognizable whether other vendors and buyers actually know them. This was a very smart strategic move.

I have received a number of emails from readers asking about offer emails they receive that seem fishy. Many times, these offers are domain name appraisal scams. These scams come in a variety of formats, but each has the same objective – getting the domain owner to pay for a domain appraisal when he thinks a potential buyer is interested in purchasing a domain name.

Typically the email offer will be for a domain name, and the scammer will suggest getting an appraisal for the domain name. Usually the scammer will tell the domain owner he is willing to pay either the amount of the appraisal or a percentage of the appraisal, depending on the email.

The email will list a few domain appraisal websites, one of which may be either owned by the scammer or a commission is earned for appraisals. The scammer generally has a 33% chance the domain owner will choose his appraisal service (probably much more considering the price comparison of the appraisals). After the domain owner pays for the appraisal, hoping to close a deal, the scammer is never heard from again.

While these scams probably aren’t illegal, I call them scams because the emailer probably didn’t intend to buy the domain name – just to get the domain owner to buy a domain appraisal.

More info with examples can be seen on these sites:

DNForum

Namepros

Domain Name Wire